India, March 19 -- The Supreme Court has come down heavily on members of the Barabanki District Bar Association in Uttar Pradesh for vandalising a toll plaza and ransacking a fellow advocate's office after he appeared for the toll employees, saying that the legal profession is now tainted by such acts of "hooliganism".

On January 14, five persons allegedly assaulted advocate Ratnesh Shukla, a resident of Pratapgarh, during a dispute over the passage of a car at the toll plaza in Haidergarh tehsil.

The incident triggered protests, with a large number of advocates gathering at the toll plaza on the Lucknow-Sultanpur stretch of National Highway 731 and forcing a shutdown of operations. Later, a resolution was passed and circulated within t...